12.25. Network Connections

12.25.1. Related Documentation

12.25.2. Connection Methods

Almost all recent laptops are equipped with a built-in network card.
This chapter shows some methods to connect older laptops without
internal network cards.

12.25.2.1. PCMCIA Network Card

If your laptop supports PCMCIA this is the easiest
and fastest way to get network support. Make sure your card is supported
before buying one.

12.25.2.2. Serial Null Modem Cable

Probably the cheapest way to connect your laptop to another computer,
but quite slow. You may use PPP or SLIP to start the connection.

12.25.2.3. Parallel Port NIC (Pocket Adaptor)

Accton Pocket Ethernet and Linux
This ethernet adaptor uses a parallel port and delivers approximately 110k Bytes/s
throughput for those notebooks that do not have PCMCIA slots.

12.25.2.4. Parallel "Null" Modem Cable

Offers more speed than a serial connection. Some laptops use chipsets
that will not work with PLIP. Please see
PLIP-HOWTO
for details.

12.25.2.5. Docking Station NIC

I don't have experience with a NIC in a docking station yet.

12.25.3. Wake-On-LAN

Wake-On-LAN works with some laptops equipped with built-in network cards.
Wake-On-LAN
is the generic name for the AMD "Magic Packet" technology. It's
very similar to the PCMCIA modem "wake on ring" signal line. The basic idea is
that the network adapter has a very-low-power mode to monitor the network for
special packet data that will wake up the machine.
The
etherwake
package as well as the
Wakeonlan Perl script
are able to send 'magic packets' to wake-on-LAN enabled
ethernet adapters and motherboards, in order to switch on remote computers.
You may use ethtool to configure some
special Wake-On-LAN settings.